Train derailment and chemical spill in Ohio

Trains have been derailing since the advent of trains. In recent times, the number of derailments is down something like 80 or 90 percent since the 1970s. So I'm not sure it's a matter of the rail system being unhealthy; or at least any more unhealthy than it has ever been.

If I was considering anything, it would be that the number of rail cars carrying hazardous materials on trains that derailed has grown, even as the number of derailments has come down dramatically.

I don't have a handle on just how much more by way of hazardous materials is being transported by train today than in the past, and how it relates to our reliance societally on hazardous materials relative to the past.

The knee-jerk for some people is to "regulate" transportation of hazardous materials; and it very well might be the right thing to do to protect people. But it will certainly come at a cost. We have more railway cars filled with hazardous materials today for a reason, and for example, dictating that that those materials have to be transported in more expensive ways will come at a cost for people. The two questions are: 1) Is that added cost relative to the risk of derailments acceptable for people (in the aggregate)? and 2) If the answer to 1 is yes, is there a reasonable expectation that whatever "regulation" is put in place will actually prevent hazardous material environmental disasters, and not become another excuse to create a wasteful bureaucracy that ends up costing us societally way more than it needed to, and exists for its own sake?

 

That's not necessarily indicative of the entire rail system being unhealthy. It could be coincidental, and let's assume it is not, it could be an issue specific to Norfolk Southern instead of it being indicative of the railway system being unhealthy.

That is why context is always important. More people are waking up to the fact that trains derail. ... but 5 weeks never makes a trend. It's worth looking at longer periods of time before ever making those any kind of conclusions (and I realize you said "maybe," so no indictment of you intended ).

Regardless, given that over longer time periods derailments have come down and have actually looked pretty steady over the last few years, for me, the more immediate life-concerning question would relate to the transportion of hazardous materials. ... because again looking over longer periods of time the number of derailments that involved hazardous materials has risen. ... and that has the potential to negatively impact a lot of people and even put lives in jeopardy.